Michelle Chen

Columnist, Global JusticeNew York, NY

Michelle Chen is Colorlines' Global Justice columnist. She is a regular contributor on labor issues at In These Times, as well as a member of the magazine's Board of Editors. Michelle's reporting has appeared in Ms. Magazine, AirAmerica, Alternet, Newsday, the Progressive Media Project, and her old zine, cain. Prior to joining Colorlines, she wrote for the independent news collective The NewStandard. A native New Yorker, she has also conducted ethnographic research as a Fulbright fellow in Shanghai and checked coats at a West Village jazz club. She is currently pursuing doctoral studies at the City University of New York and co-producing the community radio program Asia Pacific Forum on Pacifica's WBAI.

In the increasingly ugly debate over “universal coverage,” various proposals are being bounced around among competing agendas. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a proposal recently floated in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee—currently…

Civil liberties advocates told the United Nations today that racial profiling continues to tear away at the social fabric of American communities. In a report to the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the ACLU and Rights…

The Supreme Court’s decision in Ricci v. DeStefano has unsettled both sides of the affirmative action debate. The disgruntlement of a group of firefighters in New Haven, CT set off a national debate on how far governments can go…

Under the State Department’s new passport rules, even people born on the “right” side of the border have to worry about their papers. The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which went into effect June 1, requires Americans passing across the…

After sidestepping the issue of equality in voting rights earlier this week, the Supreme Court today issued a ruling that could loosen the legal framework for ensuring equality in education. The case, Horne v. Flores, was brought by parents…

As the recession rolls on, the federal stimulus package seems more and more like just a drop in the bucket, but even those limited resources are trickling down to an unlevel playing field. The National Black Chamber of Commerce…

What would Richard Nixon say if he saw the state of American politics today? Newly released audio recordings from the Nixon Presidential Library give some interesting clues into the inner workings of the 37th President’s brain. Would Nixon have…

Is inequality killing us? Atul Gawande, the New Yorker’s resident physician-reporter, raised a vexing question about health disparities in an interview with Ezra Klein. Gawande noted that in McAllen, Texas—the community that he recently featured as an example of…

Congress is moving on major climate change legislation, but some environmental advocates worry that the government will pursue emissions reductions at the expense of marginalized communities. From a social equity standpoint, the market-based cap-and-trade framework presented in the Waxman-Markey…

In a much-anticipated decision this week, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that thanks to the passage of the Voting Rights Act more than 40 years ago, “we are now a very different Nation.” The politically fraught case, Northwest Austin…

Are you better off than you were four years ago? How about thirty? For all the political wrangling around the 21st century economy, the promise of the digital age, a new era of global competitiveness… Americans are basically going…

After about three decades behind bars, a Puerto Rican revolutionary might soon be free at last. A generation ago, Carlos Alberto Torres was part of a major movement for human rights and self-determination for Puerto Rico. Driven by the…

Green jobs are seen as a vehicle for the climate justice agenda, bringing together economic and environmental advancement. But will the green industries deliver on the lofty promises activists have envisioned? According to a study by Pew Charitable Trusts,…

Using the word “apartheid” to describe the Israel-Palestine issue is a sure way to ignite more acrimony over human rights under the occupation. But, with language being inseparable from the politics of the region, is it accurate? According to…

In the past few days, the wars over the world’s natural resources have been rekindled from the Amazon to the Niger Delta. This week, a landmark legal settlement brought a decisive, though partial, end to a bloody chapter in…

Conservatives woke up to a harrowing sound on Capitol Hill on Wednesday: a serious discussion about single payer health care. The House hearing won’t necessarily lead to a viable policy proposal—and there’s plenty to debate even within the progressive…

Details are trickling in about the suspect behind the shooting at the Holocaust Memorial Museum today. James Von Brunn, an elder of the white supremacist movement, renowned for prolific spew about Jews, Barack Obama, America as a “third-world racial…

California’s most infamous prison may be shuttering its doors at last, and some may feel surprisingly troubled about its closure. The cash-strapped state is moving toward closing San Quentin—which houses more than 5,000 inmates, many of them on death…

Pollution is all around us, but the toll it takes on our bodies is often invisible. To understand the physical legacy of environmental toxins, dirty air and chemical products, environmental justice activists as well as federal agencies have begun…

Official attitudes toward immigrants across America are remarkably diverse, ranging from public embrace to stiff exclusion. If you happened to pass through Tennessee last week, you might have heard Republican lawmaker Joe Carr vigorously slamming the door on undocumented…